Meet the Biggest Threat to Google, AOL, and Microsoft: Ronald Reagan

In the world of email, a short list of companies dominate—Google, AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft—but there's a new player in the game that's ready to tear down their firewalls: Ronald Reagan. Just as Reagan took on Walter Mondale and Jimmy Carter, the conservative icon's family isn't about to bow down to any lily-livered liberals, be them presidential candidates or billion-dollar tech giants.

Last year, in his father's memory, Reagan's son Michael launched an email service to end the monopoly of left-wing Internet companies. His charge was simple: "Every time you use your e-mail from companies like Google, AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, Apple and others, you are helping liberals," Reagan wrote at the time. "These companies are, and will continue, to be huge supporters financially and with technology of those that are hurting our country." For only a small $39.95 annual fee, conservatives around the country could purchase an @Reagan.com email address, and rest easy knowing their money was going only toward conservative causes.

Today, on the eve his late father's 100th birthday, we caught up with Michael Reagan to find out how the hot startup was faring—and how he planned to win this one for the Gipper.

As Reagan tells it, the service is flourishing. With little marketing, Reagan Email is growing, and on the path to becoming a big threat to Google, AOL, and others.

"I'm excited by the fact that we started, when? April of last year? We haven't done much promotion, and we have sold 4,000 accounts," says Reagan. "When I go out and do interviews, if I'm on Sean Hannity, and I say I have an @Reagan.com email service, I can sell 1,000. Wham!"

Reagan speaks with palpable energy about the service, and believes it has the potential to be a major player in email. When I ask whether it could one day compete with the likes of Hotmail or Gmail, Reagan affirms. "Yes, at some point, it is going to be a competitor," he says. "I'm actively looking for an investor to really take it to the next level."

And Reagan has a lot to sell potential investors on. Apart from the roughly 4,000 accounts already sold—at an astonishing $40 each—the rate of growth is increasing, Reagan boasts. "There was like 5 [sold] yesterday," he says. "It's like three or four or five a day—they just keep on trickling in." Reagan also describes to me the innovative features of Reagan.com: "We got the calendar. We got everything going for it. Our search engine—I think we have the only search engine that gives you both [results from] the left and the right."

Currently, he's looking for an investment in the range of $500,000 to $1 million. "We could take in a million users—we're set up," he says. "With a large investor to put some really big bucks behind it, I think it can be huge—we'd be able to expand and get bigger servers."

When I asked how a $39.95 service could ever compete with Google or Microsoft's free email, Reagan explained that once he gets enough users, he too will be able to offer free, ad-supported service. After all, it's no different than how his competitors began.

"When AOL started, it cost more than that—look at what AOL or MSN was charging on a monthly basis—it was more than $40 a year," Reagan says. "And look at what you're getting for the $40."

Reagan says his team is "always upgrading" the service, and looking for new ways to attract users. (Though, according to Reagan Email policy, upgrading isn't necessarily included in the service's price: "You are using the Services AT YOUR OWN RISK and we are under no obligation to provide you with any support, error corrections, updates, upgrades, bug fixes and/or enhancements of the Service.")

So will Reagan Email soon chomp away at the market share of Gmail and Yahoo and Hotmail? For $39.95, there's no telling how big this service could become.

"People forget: I was the first one to stream a radio show, and everybody laughed at me," Reagan says. "I was the first one in radio with a website, and people laughed at me then."

"Well, look who's laughing now" errr me, hahahahahahahahahaha. This is a joke, how on earth can you realistically think you can make a business out of charging $40 for an inferior product (sorry but you can't argue it is better than Gmail etc which have had millions of dollars spent on research with some of the cleverest people working on them) when the rivals are free.

If this conservative thinking then if I lived in the US I certainly wouldn't vote for anyone claiming to be conservative!

Hilarious. A more appropriate headline would have been "Conservatives discover e-mail, name it Reagan."What's next? "Conservatives open new water park, name it Trickle Down Falls"?

Selling an email address for $39.99 demonstrates more about the gullibility of their base than the triumph of the Ronald Reagan mystique. Still, it would make it easier for my GMail filter to root out all the Birther crap I still get.

Riiiiight. Want to know why the "liberal" tech companies dominate today's business landscape? They don't come up with lame ideas like this. Email? Seriously? This could be a competitor to gmail and hotmail? What is this guy on? They're just NOW trying to bust into a market that is like 30 years old?!

Bottom line, it's a gimmick. Like the trickle down effect. And even conservative voters for the most part just can't be bothered with gimmicks. News flash Reagan, the tech industry and consumers in general don't care about your politics. They care about a quality product. And I HIGHLY doubt that the team behind this service is anywhere in the same UNIVERSE as the talent that put together GMail, Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail.

So ... the moral of the story is, don't laugh at Michael Reagan? I have to say, this is rich, conservatives demonizing corporate giants.

Google makes money because it's a service that works, back by a smart company, led by smart people. If Reagan's service can offer the same level of quality, I'd say more power to him. If he can't, well, then feel free to spend the $40/year to feel better about patronizing a business that is aligned with your political ideology, knowing that you may be sacrificing quality and convenience for, nostalgia, I guess.

Chris, just a couple of points: Berlin Wall came down during Bush Sr's term; There was a war in Grenada, brief as it was; the release of hostages has less to do with Reagan and more to do with defying President Carter.

I don't mind giving Ronald Reagan his due, certainly his Presidency had an impact, and I think it's fair to acknowledge both his successes and failures, as well as other presidents. Otherwise, we're just bunch of partisans with little regard for half the American population.

Gorbachev@Reagan.com, Hosni@Reagan.com, Noriega@Reagan.com, Ollie@Reagan.com, StarWars@Reagan.com .... yes, I can see how this brand has a certain "ring" to it. If I could only remember my password.... Now where did I put my briefcase? - There is nothing wrong with using the brand name. How they are using it is something of a schlock. But, I know it will appeal to many people. That's why I went out and bought up all the presidential brand names I could find before Congress passes the law of eminent domain for the internet. What is happening in the middle east has once again fired up the lynch mob to kill a little more of our freedom. Doh@Reagan.com

Of course. The left should really wise up and learn from their mistakes on this one, once and for all.

But then again, Google and Apple might be little too busy working on the next generation of smartphones while conservatives are just now getting around to their first generation of "e-mail" and "web search." Reagan's brand power is one thing; revolutionizing technology is completely another. So I guess these so-called leftist companies will simply never have time to learn their lesson. They're just too busy with all this "getting shit done."

I guess the real lesson just as easily be that you can go to conservatives for snappy branding and outdated technology. You can go to liberals to get shit done.

Bit of a weird article... I mean, even paid email accounts with a custom domain name plus website are much cheaper than this. Why in the world would anyone buy it? For the status? Noone knows about its existance yet, so it's not like with Apple that you pay for the brand. Weird.